The Leeds Area Chamber of Commerce hosted U.S. House of Representative Gary Palmer at their August meeting last week.  Congressman Palmer spoke to the group about current issues in Washington and the work he is doing there.

Congressman Palmer grew up in Hackleburg which is a small town in Northwest Alabama and now lives in Hoover.  He currently represents Alabama’s 6^th Congressional District.

“With new legislation being passed almost every week, there is much work to be done.  One of the items discussed was reforming regulations.  With the great recession, the economy has been stagnant,” said Palmer. “Prior to 2008, 100,000 more businesses were opening than closing.  By 2018, more businesses are closing than opening.  We must address regulatory issues and tax structure, because we are no longer competitive.  There are dollars on the sidelines waiting for some changes.”

The House passed 16 congressional review act bills.  Congressman Palmer mentioned the work on Dodd-Frank with losing community banks on a regular basis.

Also, the House passed a bill to repair and restore healthcare.  They have begun working on an amendment to deal with pre-existing conditions.  There are still parts of the health care law that they are getting done.  Palmer ran think tanks for 25 years and has the experience to come up with ideas and processes that work with solutions such as an insurance pool for individuals where they saw insurance premiums go down while covering more people.  Setting up insurance association groups for individuals should result in the ability to buy insurance at lower rates.  More people would purchase coverage, because the premiums would be lower and more affordable

Another concern is the tax gap.  “This is what is owed to the government, but never collected,” explained Palmer. “$406 billion in one year and $4 trillion over 10 years.  We’ve had to borrow money and pay interest on this money.  Some of it is fraud and other instances are just plain mistakes in tax returns because of the complexity of our tax laws.”

“Rates are important, but two things we’ve got to do:  1) bring predictability to the tax code so we have more businesses opening than closing, and 2) simplify to make it easier for report taxes,” Palmer continued.

According to Palmer, 27 million people will now take the standard tax deduction next year and 90 percent of businesses will have simpler tax returns, which will result in fewer errors.  With the new tax reform, average households of four will experience increased wages and less taxes that will result in an income increase for these families of $35,000 over a ten year period.

“The name of the game is to simplify. The IRS will not collect much of what is owed,” said Palmer.  “$22 billion of fraud went to Russia with $19 million recovered.  We need to replace Federal ID system.  We have obsolete equipment and IRS employees are trying to do their jobs with old inefficient equipment.”

Palmer thinks we are now on the right path with many concerns, but there is a lot more to do. He is also interested in issues on economic development. 

“Vocation training and workforce development is another important topic with aligning curriculum to focus on job-related skills,” Palmer said.

Another topic Palmer discussed is the focus on quarterly Mayors meetings with no poaching agreements.  This discourages cities in close proximity from recruiting retail and other industry from each other and encourage bringing in industry from other regions.

Palmer also discussed the possibility of consolidating small town fire and police departments to free up resources that could be used toward economic development. 

“We need to encourage our cities and municipalities to build what we need 25 years from now and not just what we need today so it will not be obsolete the day after we build it,” explained Palmer.

Palmer is currently on the House Committee on the Budget, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Chairman for the Sub-committee on Intergovernmental Affairs and on the Subcommittee on Interior.  The Caucuses include the Republican Study Committee, the Freedom Caucus and the Sportsman Caucus.

If you would like to contact Congressman Gary Palmer, you may call his Birmingham office at 205-958-1290 or visit his website at www.palmer.house.gov.